Primary Source Media & Arcana Labs Team for George Washington Doc

Primary Source Media has partnered with the AI-powered production platform Arcana Labs on Revolutionary, an eight-part docuseries that examines the man behind the myth of George Washington.

“The fact that there’s no footage of anything before 1888 creates an inherent challenge when making a historical piece, but history still needs to be brought to life to have real impact with an audience,” said Isaac S. Loftus, co-director of Revolutionary. “We realized early on that generative AI had the potential to revolutionize historical documentaries, to allow us to reach a level of accuracy that isn’t typically achievable even in live-action re-creations. But most tools we tested didn’t allow for enough flexibility and were overall unintuitive and clumsy. That changed when we discovered Arcana. Built specifically for filmmakers, their platform allows us the precision and flexibility to achieve the accuracy that historical storytelling demands—all within the budgetary constraints of an independent film.”

“With this docuseries, Primary Source Media embodies what Arcana was built to do—free filmmakers from the limits of what a physical camera can capture,” said Jonathan Yunger, co-founder and CEO of Arcana Labs. “Without access to real footage, Isaac and his team leveraged our platform to re-create entire worlds with the accuracy, artistry and emotional depth this story deserves. By merging traditional filmmaking craftsmanship with advanced AI, Arcana’s production company in a box empowers storytellers to bring the past to life, authentically and without constraints.”

Revolutionary is told in a nonlinear, serialized fashion, with each chapter built around a theme such as family, influential women, war and disease. The series goes through the events of Washington’s life to understand not just who he was but how his character set him up to be a focal point of one of the most significant eras in American history.

The docuseries is directed by Loftus and Jordan Solane, with Patrick Long as producer. Dr. Lynn Price Robbins served as head of research, and Walter “Buck” Buckley, founder of Primary Source Media and CEO of growth equity investor SEMCAP AI, served as executive producer.